For 10 years, I've published The Inner Harbor Network, a monthly neighborhood calendar. It boggles the mind anyone would consider the Inner Harbor unwelcoming. It came as a surprise this sentiment exists, and that young African-Americans sense exclusion ("Youths seek 'inclusive' Inner Harbor," May 30). I'm sorry Rickya'h Brooks, Marquise Robinson and members of the Inner Harbor Project never saw my website. Granted, it is extremely hard to get information about what's happening in the area.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland has filed a federal employment discrimination complaint against a Maryland hair salon on behalf of an employee who says he was fired for being HIV-positive. Representatives for Ratner Cos., which owns the Hair Cuttery in Greenbelt, said in a statement he was fired for "repeated inappropriate behavior," including verbally abusing co-workers in front of clients. A company document outlining his HIV status as the cause for his termination — which the ACLU included in the complaint to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission — "inaccurately described the reason for his dismissal," they said.

The Baltimore Department of Transportation has made changes to the signals controlling pedestrian traffic in Fells Point after hearing complaints from local residents, a city official said. Jamie Kendrick, the city's deputy transportation director, said Tuesday that Fells Point residents complained to the city last week that pedestrians were not getting "walk" signals unless they pushed buttons installed for that purpose. He said the city has reprogrammed signals so that they automatically flash periodic walk signals at several busy Fells Point intersections.

The Baltimore County Council is consider new rules for races that are run through neighborhoods after receiving complaints that organizers of a recent event spray-painted streets in Towson. Councilman David Marks, a Perry Hall Republican who represents Towson, wants to regulate races like parades, requiring them to use non-permanent course markings and notify the community about proposed routes. "It's good to give neighbors more information," said Marks, who introduced the bill at Monday's council meeting.

Do-not-call violations and telemarketing abuses ranked as the fastest-growing consumer complaints last year, according to a report released Wednesday. Three Maryland agencies participated in the annual survey by the Consumer Federation of America and the North American Consumer Protection Investigators. The survey compiled the top, worst and fastest-growing complaints. The Howard County Office of Consumer Affairs, the Maryland Attorney General's Office and the Montgomery County Office of Consumer Protection were among 43 agencies from 23 states that responded.

Two years ago, the Sun's Arthur Hirsch profiled Baltimore County resident Mike Pierce and his obsessive drive to fight illegal signage . At the time, Pierce was responsible for a third of the county's complaints about nonpolitical signs. The Kingsville man is still on the case today. Pierce emailed me about today's article, “ Baltimore County cracks down on nuisance road signs .” He said he was responsible for the complaints that led to fines against two of the businesses mentioned in the story - Cash for Cars and All-Star Automotive.

Auto information and pricing company Edmunds.com took a look at the number of complaints drivers have filed about carmakers with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and compared them with the number of autos the companies have on the road. By that measure, Toyota Motor Corp. looked pretty good. According to the database, which Edmunds noted consists of complaints from individuals and is not checked for accuracy by NHTSA, Toyota was the subject of 9.1 percent of the complaints from 2001 through Feb. 3. During that period, Toyota had a 13.5 percent slice of the U.S. auto market.

Black scuff marks line the staircase at 922 N. Charles St., left there by frustrated tenants kicking the wall in a vain attempt to make their neighbor, the Museum Restaurant and Lounge, quiet down. Most nights, tenants say, the sound of DJs hyping up the crowd rattles china cabinets and nerves alike. "It's thump, thump, thump from the music," said Will Penn, 48, who lives in one of the apartments next door. Penn, like many other Baltimoreans who live near bars, said he has filed complaints using the city's 311 system but has seen nothing change.

Baltimore County's citizen sign crusader is on the case. Rolling down Eastern Boulevard in his 1994 Volvo, Mike Pierce swings into the parking lot next to Essex Liquors to point out the latest turn in one of his continuing battles against visual clutter. Orange paint had been used weeks ago to cover offending signs painted on the wall, but the wall has since sprouted many signs printed on rectangular plastic sheets: Yuengling, Pabst, Bud Light, Corona, Smirnoff. "The code says 'paper or soft material,' " says Pierce, who settled in Baltimore County when he moved to Maryland in 1995, and now lives in Kingsville.

A locksmith who was accused by dozens of consumers of overcharging and other unfair business practices must offer estimates before doing work or face contempt of court, an Anne Arundel County circuit court has ruled. Judge Michelle D. Jaklitsch granted a preliminary injunction against Around the Clock Locksmith and owner Joseph M. Horton at the request of the Consumer Protection Division of the attorney general's office, Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler announced Thursday. The injunction enforces an order the office issued in April to protect consumers while an administrative proceeding against the company and its owner is pending.

Taking their queue from the classic movie "Casablanca," some city officials are declaring themselves "shocked, shocked!" to learn that police brutality is a serious problem in Baltimore. An investigative report on Sunday by The Sun's Mark Puente found the city has paid out more than $5.7 million since 2011 in judgments or settlements of more than 100 lawsuits brought by citizens alleging excessive use of force and other police misconduct. Three years earlier, the city's budget office also raised concerns over its spending $10.4 million from 2008 through 2011 - an average of about $3.5 million annually - defending the Baltimore Police Department against misconduct lawsuits.

A development group wants to build nearly 200 townhouses on the site of the former Seagram's distillery in Dundalk - a blighted collection of abandoned buildings where two people have died while trespassing and exploring. The Sollers Point Road property, which hasn't been used as a whiskey distillery since the early 1990s, has been the scene of problems in recent years. Fires have broken out, and county officials have received complaints about graffiti, weeds, broken fences and other issues.

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake's administration settled a discrimination complaint brought by the U.S. Department of Justice, agreeing to ensure that hiring follows rules that forbid asking most job candidates to take medical exams. The Justice Department had accused the city of violating the Americans with Disabilities Act after the Fire Department refused to hire a candidate for a dispatcher position when a medical exam revealed that she had a disability. The city agreed to pay the woman $65,000 and to ensure its hiring policies and practices follow the law, according to a consent decree filed with a complaint in U.S. District Court on Wednesday.

If you had a complaint about your credit card last year, about billing or fraud, for instance, you were more likely to live in Maryland than North Dakota. Mid-Atlantic residents had the most credit card complaints per capita, with Maryland ranked overall in the U.S. as the state with the third highest number of complaints, according to a new study. Consumer website ValuePenguin analyzed the more than 13,000 complaints collected by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in 2013 to come up with its findings.

The U.S. Department of Education has opened a formal investigation into the Johns Hopkins University's response to an alleged rape at a fraternity house, the university disclosed Tuesday. A group of students filed a complaint with the department's Office of Civil Rights earlier this year, arguing that the university had violated the Clery Act and Title IX, federal laws that dictate how crimes like sexual assault should be handled by universities and reported to the public. Officials said they were notified of the investigation on Friday.

If patients in Maryland want to learn about complaints or concerns about their doctors, there is little that can be made public under state law. But that's not the case in all states. Complaints made to medical licensing boards are made public in nine states, according to the Federation of State Medical Boards. Here and in most of the rest of the country, complaints are kept confidential. The Maryland Board of Physicians makes allegations public only when it has taken action to discipline a doctor.

Phillip White is the newest member of the BlueHippo-Wronged-Me-Club, but his beef with the Woodlawn-based retailer that sells computers and other electronics to people with poor credit is nothing new. Like so many others before him, White saw a TV ad, called BlueHippo, spoke to a sales rep and then agreed to pay the astronomical price of $2,178.48 for an HP Desktop computer through biweekly electronic debits from his bank account. Like the others, White said he was led to believe he would receive free products and his computer once he established a good payment history.

Do-not-call violations and telemarketing abuses ranked as the fastest-growing consumer complaints last year, according to a report released Wednesday. Three Maryland agencies participated in the annual survey by the Consumer Federation of America and the North American Consumer Protection Investigators. The survey compiled the top, worst and fastest-growing complaints. The Howard County Office of Consumer Affairs, the Maryland Attorney General's Office and the Montgomery County Office of Consumer Protection were among 43 agencies from 23 states that responded.

The police chief in Annapolis on Monday sought to counter complaints about officers photographing youths. Rumors spread over the weekend on social media and elsewhere that officers were photographing African-American children in the city, and several people attended Monday night's Annapolis City Council meeting to voice concerns. Annapolis Police Chief Michael Pristoop said officers and detectives have been investigating recent robberies in which two men were jumped by a group of African-American juveniles in the Clay Street area.